These concepts and characters have always been with us, but
currently it seems totally out of proportion to other fictional events. There are TV shows, movies, and many books on
both subjects. To me, most are poor
examples of art, but rather the usual attempt to cash in on what’s
current. I have tried to read a vampire
book and watched an episode of “The Walking Dead”; won’t be repeating
either.
Granted, I’m older than most of the fans, but there must be
some other reasons why I just don’t get it.
Obviously, both involve the concept of death—or undeath. From my Sociological research in death and
dying, I learned that among cultural taboos (e.g., sex and religion), the subject
of death was the hardest to deal with in current times. In the past, death was something to be dealt
with on a daily basis. The human
lifespan was much shorter and infant deaths were common. With the progress in medicine, many people
grow to adulthood without experiencing death at close range. In addition, many deaths occur in hospitals,
further insulating us from the direct experience.
Fictional death has always provided the gory, in your face
kind of dying experience. Medical death
on TV and movies is made prettier than a mortician could ever hope for. We see a pale, but otherwise good looking
patient in a clean hospital bed, neatly covered and lying on plump
pillows. The loved ones have meaningful
last conversations and vows of love, then the machines start beeping and fade
to black. This is invariably followed by
a rainy funeral scene at the grave site with everyone garbed in stylish black.
The difference with Zombies and Vampires is a lot of blood
and guts. There has been a new effort in
the Vampire stories to make these characters more human and “just like us”. So is this our current cultural maneuver to
break the taboo, and help us understand death?
Or, maybe just another way of distancing ourselves from a concept that
is just too hard to accept in reality?
Fiction is a very acceptable way of escaping from
reality. My theory—and I’m just guessing
of course—is that the more dismal the world around us seems, the more we will
seek escape. We hear of mass shootings,
wars, economic collapse, health crises, and terrorists in the closet on a daily
basis. The further our fiction is from our real
lives, the more we can distance ourselves from the hard to accept facts. I’m pretty sure no one really believes the
Zombie apocalypse is coming soon, or that your strange neighbors who stay up
all night are really vampires. Or is
that just me?
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